This invention relates to an electrical connector for use in desk-top workstations, servers, personal computers and the like, and more particularly to an ejection mechanism for removing a circuit board, a mating connector or the like from a connector.
A prior art connector will be explained herein referring to FIG. 3 illustrating a hitherto used connector 50 and a circuit board 28 in a perspective view. The prior art connector 50 is mainly composed of an insulator 38 and contacts 40 fixed to the insulator 38 by press-fitting or other method. The connector 50 having the contacts fixed thereto is connected to a plug-in circuit plate (not shown) for the connector 50 by soldering. Thereafter, a circuit board 28 or a mating connector is fitted in the connector 50. FIG. 3 illustrates a state that the circuit board 28 is about to be inserted into the connector 50.
Terminal portions 44 of the contacts 40 fixed to the connector 50 are inserted into the plug-in circuit plate (not shown) and then the contacts 40 are soldered therein by reflowing or the like The insulator 38 is provided at both ends of its lengthwise direction with guides 48 which are formed in their insides with insertion grooves 36, respectively, for guiding the circuit board 28 or the mating connector.
For maintenance or when a fault occurs, it may be needed to remove and again insert the circuit board from and into the connector. In order to remove the circuit board 28 from the connector, according to the prior art the circuit board 28 must be grasped by fingers of an operator and then pulled in the x direction in FIG. 3. In such a removal of the circuit board 28 from the connector 50, a great force is required although it may be affected by the number of cores and contact force between the circuit board and the connector. For example, in the case that the number of cores is 168 and the contact force per one core is 100 gf, a removing force more than 3 kg may be necessary.
With an increase in the number of cores, the removing force will proportionally increases. In many cases, a circuit board 28 to be fitted in a connector has precision chips carried thereon. When removing the circuit board from the connector, therefore, an operator generally tend to grasp the circuit board with its part equipped with chips and pull it by a great force more than 3 kg. Consequently, there is a problem to be solved in the prior art that the pulling force and static electricity would damage chips to cause a need for an exchange of high expensive circuit boards themselves, which results in an increase in cost as a whole.
There is a further problem to be solved in the prior art that due to vibration or the like, a circuit board 28 fitted in the connector 50 tends to deviate from its correct position relative to contact portions of contacts 40 of the connector 50 so that stable contact therebetween could not be obtained.
In the event of a great number of cores, moreover, on soldering a comparatively long connector 50 to a plug-in circuit plate, the connector itself is likely to bend slightly so that the connector is partially spaced apart from the plug-in circuit plate to make it impossible to obtain a stable soldered state of the connector.